Multi-RAT heterogeneous carrier aggregation

ABSTRACT

A network node for facilitating data transfer is disclosed, comprising: a routing module configured to receive network link capacity information; a first radio interference operating on a first radio access technology and coupled to the routing module; and a second radio interface operating on a second radio access technology and coupled to the routing module, wherein the routing module is configured to receive packets directed to a third virtual radio interface and route the packets to one or both of the first and the second radio interfaces to provide throughput at the third virtual radio interface that is greater than throughput available via either the first or the second radio interfaces independently.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims the benefit of anearlier filing date under 35 U.S.C. § 120 based on, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/189,907, filed Nov. 13, 2018, and entitled“Multi-RAT Heterogeneous Carrier Aggregation”, which itself is acontinuation of, and claims the benefit of an earlier filing date under35 U.S.C. § 120 based on, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/002,383,filed Jan. 20, 2016, and entitled “Multi-RAT Heterogeneous CarrierAggregation”, which itself claims the benefit of priority under 35U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/105,333,filed on Jan. 20, 2015 and entitled “Multi-RAT Heterogeneous CarrierAggregation,” which are each hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety for all purposes. The present application also herebyincorporates by reference for all purposes U.S. Pat. No. 8,879,416,“Heterogeneous Self-Organizing Network,” filed Jan. 3, 2014; U.S. Pat.No. 8,867,418, “Methods of Incorporating an Ad Hoc Cellular Network intoa Fixed Cellular Network,” filed Feb. 18, 2014; U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/453,365, “Systems and Methods for Providing LTE-BasedBackhaul,” filed Aug. 6, 2014; and U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/777,246, “Methods of Enabling Base Station Functionality in a UserEquipment,” filed Sep. 15, 2015.

BACKGROUND

Currently, base stations such as nodeBs and enhanced nodeBs (eNBs)require backhaul connections for transferring data to and from a corenetwork or the public Internet. These backhaul connections are shared byall devices connected to the base station, and may be saturated as aresult. Certain base stations may be equipped with multiple radiointerfaces, such as a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE)-protocol compatibleradio and a Wi-Fi-compatible radio. It is desirable to use both the LTEand Wi-Fi radios together to provide improved bandwidth for the backhaulconnection.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, a network node for facilitating data transfer isdisclosed, comprising: a routing module configured to receive networklink capacity information; a first radio interference operating on afirst radio access technology and coupled to the routing module; and asecond radio interface operating on a second radio access technology andcoupled to the routing module, wherein the routing module is configuredto receive packets directed to a third virtual radio interface and routethe packets to one or both of the first and the second radio interfacesto provide throughput at the third virtual radio interface that isgreater than throughput available via either the first or the secondradio interfaces independently.

The network node may be a mesh network node. The network node may becoupled to a second network node and the first and the second radiointerfaces are coupled to a third and a fourth radio interface at thesecond network node. The network node may be a multi-radio accesstechnology. The network node may have a routing module configured toprovide a mapping from a user data context to one of the first radiointerface and the second radio interface. The network node may have arouting module configured to receive network capacity information thatreflects aggregate capacity over a network comprising a plurality ofnetwork nodes. The network node may have the traffic quality of servicecharacteristics that are one of a Long Term Evolution (LTE)quality-of-service (QoS) class identifier (QCI) and Wi-Fi WirelessMultimedia Extensions (WME) access category (AC). The network node mayhave a routing module coupled to the third virtual network interface andto a higher-level network routing module.

In another embodiment, a method is disclosed for increasing backhaulnetwork capacity in a mobile access network, comprising: receiving anaccess request from a mobile device; receiving a request for data fromthe mobile device; classifying the request for data according to ademanded throughput; identifying a plurality of network interfaces forserving the request for data based on the classification and based onchannel characteristics of the plurality of network interfaces; andsending a request for the requested data over a virtual networkinterface that uses each of the plurality of identified networkinterfaces.

The method may contain a plurality of network interfaces that are radiointerfaces and the virtual network interface is a virtual radio networkinterface. The method may further comprise: continuously monitoring theplurality of network interfaces to assess the channel characteristics ofthe plurality of network interfaces, and classifying a second requestfor data based on updated channel characteristics. The method mayidentify two of a plurality of radio interfaces for serving the requestfor data based on the classification and based on channelcharacteristics of the plurality of radio interfaces; and sending arequest for the requested data over both of the identified two of theplurality of radio interfaces. The method may have the access request asa packet data protocol (PDP) context request in a Long Term Evolution(LTE) access network, and wherein the mobile device is a user equipment(UE). The method may have the demanded quality of service as one of theLong Term Evolution (LTE) quality-of-service (QoS) class identifier(QCI) and a Wi-Fi Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WME) access category(AC). The method may have a plurality of network interfaces including atleast two of: Wi-Fi; Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS);Long Term Evolution (LTE); digital subscriber line (DSL); point-to-pointprotocol (PPP); land-mobile radio (LMR); television white space (TVWS);and Ethernet. The method may have the channel characteristics of atleast one of: latency; jitter; received signal strength indication(RSSI); reference signal received power (RSRP); reference signalreceived quality (RSRQ); bit error rate; packet reception rate; andsignal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a pair of base stations, in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a network diagram of a dual-RAT UE connected to a meshnetwork, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a network diagram of a UE connected to a mesh network, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a second network diagram of a UE connected to a mesh network,in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an enhanced eNodeB, in accordance withsome embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a signaling coordinator server, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a system architecture diagram of an exemplary networkconfiguration, in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Multi-RAT aggregation can provide a method for providing increasedbandwidth to mobile devices such as LTE-capable user equipments (UEs).By using more than one air interface at once, two devices maycommunicate with each other at a higher data rate with minimalinterference. Methods for performing aggregation over multiple airinterfaces are described. Radio interface and air interface are usedinterchangeably in this disclosure, as would be understood by one ofskill in the art.

In the examples below, Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n/ac/ad/af, etc.) and LTE aredescribed as exemplary air interfaces, but other radio accesstechnologies may be used, including 3G, UMTS, television whitespace(TVWS), microwave, including line-of-sight (LoS) microwave, fiber optic,DSL, PPP, land-mobile radio (LMR), and satellite connections.

In some embodiments, multi-RAT aggregation may be enabled by operationsperformed at the transport layer or IP layer of the Open SystemsInterconnection (OSI) model. A single connection can be split intomultiple sub-connections and then separate radio interfaces may beassigned for each sub-connection. Connections may later be joined orre-split. Connections may be tagged using header information. In someembodiments, Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) range request headersmay be added to connections such that a single request is broken up intomultiple non-overlapping byte ranges that together allow delivery of anentire file, thereby splitting a single connection or request in amanner transparent to higher layers. These range request headers may beinterpreted to cause different range requests to be carried by differentair interfaces.

In some embodiments, TCP flags or other headers may be added. Deeppacket inspection may be used to identify headers within packets as theytransit through various nodes, and may be used for identifying specificair interfaces to be used for transport. In some embodiments, specificair interfaces may be specified on a per sub-connection basis; inothers, sub-connections may be automatically placed on different airinterfaces without specification of specific interfaces to be used. Insome embodiments, the capacity of each interface may be considered toprovide an overall additive increase in capacity, potentially providingan integer multiple of throughput over that of a single channel.

In some embodiments,

Multipath transport control protocol (multipath TCP), defined in IETFRFC 6824, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety, is a well-knownprotocol for splitting a single connection into multiple sub-connectionsand delivering them via different routing paths. In some embodiments,aspects of multipath TCP may be used. For example, multipath TCP statesthat a node may detect that another node supports multipath TCP bydetecting a plurality of IP addresses. In some embodiments of thepresent disclosure, one node may communicate to a second node that tworadio interfaces are supported. The communication may be performed in away similar to that used by multipath TCP. The first node may theninitiate multi-RAT aggregation and may cause multiple sub-connections tobe created or may request multiple sub-connections to be made at anupstream network node.

In some embodiments, HTTP range request carrier aggregation may beperformed between mesh nodes. For example, a first mesh node may providebackhaul for a second mesh node. Certain backhaul requests may involveHTTP requests. The HTTP requests may be received from a user equipment.The HTTP requests may also be generated by the second mesh node. TheHTTP requests may be broken up into multiple HTTP range requests, andthe range requests may be spread over more than one radio accesstechnology, such as LTE and Wi-Fi. In some embodiments, the rangerequests may be non-overlapping.

In some embodiments, non-HTTP data requests may be broken up into aplurality of range requests for data that include an identifier of adata object, a data start position, and a data end position. Theserequests may be non-HTTP range requests. Various protocols may be usedin place of HTTP. Where protocols are used that do not support rangerequests, the generated range requests may be re-joined at an upstreamnetwork node before being sent to the originally-intended recipient. Insome embodiments, communications between mesh nodes may be broken upinto the plurality of range requests.

In some embodiments, requests for data may be split, or disaggregated,using means other than range requests. For example, sub-requests fordata may be tagged or numbered, and the sub-requests may be sentseparately via multiple radio access technologies. The words“disaggregated” and “aggregated” are used in this document to refer torequests for data that are broken up into multiple requests, and/orre-joined into a single request. Where HTTP and non-HTTP range requestsare described, it is understood that other types of disaggregated andaggregated requests may be used.

In some embodiments, GRE tunnels, IPSec tunnels, bearers, LTE EPSbearers, user contexts, PDP contexts, or other tunnels may be requestedand set up using aggregation such that they use a plurality of radiointerfaces. Alternately or in combination, aggregated or disaggregatedrequests may be encapsulated and sent through the tunnels. In the casethat multiple radio interfaces are used to deliver disaggregatedrequests, encapsulation may be performed at an upstream or downstreamnode after the requests are aggregated or reaggregated, in someembodiments. In other embodiments, a virtual tunnel may be created thatspans more than one radio interface, allowing disaggregated results tobe sent over more than one radio interface while still beingencapsulated in the virtual tunnel.

Aggregation or disaggregation may be performed at different levels inthe OSI network stack. For example, an HTTP request may be split intomultiple range requests, thus providing disaggregation at theapplication layer. Alternately, a single HTTP response, with a datapayload, may be delivered as a plurality of TCP data packets, whichthemselves may be disaggregated to provide disaggregation at thetransport layer.

In some embodiments, a first and a second radio access technology arerepresented in an operating system network stack as network interfacesor network interface modules. A virtual network interface may be createdthat represents the use of both the first and the second radio accesstechnology. The virtual network interface may be a software module thatperforms routing functions to direct traffic to the network interfacesof the underlying radio access technologies.

In some embodiments, the handset may use both Wi-Fi and LTE to sendand/or receive data from the mobile base station used for access. Insome embodiments, a plurality of HTTP range requests may be used tomultiplex requests over a plurality of radio access technologies, suchas Wi-Fi and LTE. Each mobile base station may then use both an LTEconnection and a non-LTE connection, such as Wi-Fi or DSL, to send andreceive data to and from one or more mesh nodes in the radio accessnetwork (which may be via LTE-A relay), until the requests reach a meshnode with high-bandwidth wired backhaul. The use of multiple radioaccess technologies may allow a greater aggregate bandwidth than eitherradio access technology in isolation, even with overhead.

In some embodiments, even though the handset only uses LTE tocommunicate with the access base station, the access base station mayuse one or more radio access technologies together to provide increasedbandwidth. This may be advantageous when the access base stationconnection to the handset is higher-bandwidth than the backhaulconnection, such as the depicted 1800 MHz LTE access connection versusthe 900 MHz LTE backhaul.

In some embodiments, a UE may be connected to a base station, which maybe connected to a core network including a serving gateway and a packetgateway. An EPS bearer may exist between the handset (optimized ornon-optimized) and the serving gateway (SGW). Traffic from the handsetmay be disaggregated (at a packet level, or at an application layerlevel, or at another level) and carried over one or more radio accesstechnologies. Before the EPS bearer is terminated at the SGW, anintermediate node may re-aggregate the disaggregated traffic so that themulti-RAT transport is transparent to the SGW. Similarly, downloadtraffic from the SGW may be disaggregated and later re-aggregated at anintermediate node to transparently provide a single EPS bearer to thehandset.

In some embodiments, the virtual network interface may represent itselfto the network stack as having a maximum throughput higher than eitherof the first and the second radio access technology. For example, if aWi-Fi interface with a theoretical 70 Mbps maximum throughput and an LTEinterface with a theoretical 100 Mbps maximum throughput are present ata base station, a virtual interface combining both interfaces may reporta maximum throughput of, for example, 170 Mbps. The throughput may bereported as less than the arithmetic addition of both sub-interfaces toaccount for overhead, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, a routing layer may exist between the virtualnetwork interface and the first and the second radio access technology.The routing layer may be conceptualized as an Open SystemsInterconnection (OSI) Layer 1.5 layer. The routing layer may take intoaccount the varying characteristics of the underlying technologies,including real-time radio signal quality or error rate characteristics,and may route data to one or the other based on this information. Thedata may be received at the virtual network interface in a packetizedform, and then may be routed as a packet to one or the other of theunderlying network interfaces.

In some embodiments, the packets received at the routing layer may beaggregated or disaggregated. A virtual radio interface may represent tothe network stack that it has a medium access control protocol data unitmaximum length (MAC PDU length), maximum transmission unit (MTU), ormaximum segment size (MSS) that is larger than one or more of theunderlying network interfaces. For example, a base station may have aWi-Fi interface with an MTU of 7981 bytes, and an LTE interface with anMTU of 1428. The virtual interface may report an MTU of 7981 bytes, andmay perform fragmentation at the routing layer to permit data to be sentover the LTE interface. As another example, two interfaces with MTUs of1500 bytes may be combined to form a single interface with an MTU of3000 bytes, and all packets may be fragmented to be sent over eitherinterface.

In some embodiments, IP fragmentation may be supported. In someembodiments, IP fragmentation may include fragmentation of traffic usingthe S1, X2, Uu, Un, or other protocols.

Packets may be tagged using arbitrary parameters in the IP header toindicate that they belong to the virtual network interface. For example,a specific, configurable MTU or packet length may be used. In otherembodiments, the standard IP headers for IP packet fragmentation, i.e.,the “more fragments” and “fragment offset” flags, may be used.

Disaggregation may be performed according to known IP fragmentationtechniques and methods, and may also take into account the arbitraryparameters described above. If it is known that the packets werereceived from an aggregating virtual interface, for example, the packetsmay be re-aggregated and delivered to a higher layer of a localnetworking stack from a corresponding virtual interface at the recipientnode.

Aggregation or disaggregation may be performed at different points in anetwork, according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the initialHTTP request may be disaggregated into a plurality of range requests ata first mesh node, and in other embodiments at a second mesh node. Insome embodiments, downstream or upstream mesh nodes may furtherdisaggregate the resultant disaggregated range requests.

Additionally, one or more buffers, frame sizes, MTU lengths, or otherparameters related to network frame size may be increased to accommodatean increased size and/or throughput of the aggregated network interface,in some embodiments. This increase may be on the virtual networkinterface, at a higher layer in the networking stack, or within therouting layer, in some embodiments. For example, if a network interfacebuffer in the operating system or routing layer is designed to hold 1second's worth of data, that buffer may be increased to hold 1 second'sworth of data at the aggregate network interface's increased bandwidth.

In some embodiments, mesh network nodes may report their connectionthroughput to other mesh nodes as the aggregate capacity of theiraggregated network interfaces. For example, a mesh node may report itscombined Wi-Fi and LTE throughput as its total throughput to anothermesh node for purposes of routing. In some embodiments, aggregatecapacity of the network may be reported to a mesh node or to acontroller based on aggregate throughput of the network's virtualinterfaces.

In some embodiments, the UE may reaggregate requests. In someembodiments, downstream or upstream mesh nodes may also reaggregaterequests. For example, if a single HTTP request is broken up at a firstmesh node into two ranges and disaggregated into two HTTP rangerequests, and then sent over two radio interfaces to a second mesh node,the second mesh node having a high-bandwidth backhaul connection such asa fiber optic backhaul connection, the second mesh node may reaggregatethe requests to form a single HTTP request and transmit the singlerequest over the fiber optic backhaul connection, or the second meshnode may retransmit both HTTP range requests over the fiber opticbackhaul connection.

In some embodiments, a gateway server in the data path between a UE andthe public Internet, e.g., in the backhaul data path, may be used toaggregate or disaggregate requests. For example, a single request may bemade by a UE, the single request may be disaggregated into separaterequests by one or more mesh nodes, the mesh nodes may deliver allrequests via a backhaul connection to the gateway server, and thegateway server may aggregate the separate requests before sending themon to the public Internet. The reverse may also be enabled by someembodiments, such that the gateway server may disaggregate a datapayload, request, or response message, thereby allowing a mesh networkto efficiently deliver the disaggregated data via one, two, or anyappropriate number of radio interfaces, before being reaggregated by anegress mesh node or by a compatible user equipment, such as a devicewhich may be capable of re-aggregating HTTP range requests performedover Wi-Fi and LTE.

In some embodiments, coordination may be performed to determine whichnode will perform disaggregation or aggregation. The coordination may bebetween nodes directly, between nodes indirectly via messages that arereceived by nodes upstream or downstream, between a mesh node and abackhaul mesh node, and/or between nodes but further facilitated by acloud coordination server. In some embodiments, multiple mesh nodes mayperform disaggregation, independently or in coordination.

In some embodiments, radio interfaces may have differing reliabilitycharacteristics. The reliability characteristics of the underlying radiointerfaces may be incorporated into the assignment of requests orsub-requests to a particular radio interface. In some embodiments, arequest delivery failure over one radio interface may be detected andthe request may be re-requested, either by the sender or the recipientnode.

In some embodiments, when a request is split, or disaggregated, and therequest is transmitted over a plurality of radio interfaces, either thesending or the receiving node may tag the received requests with thespecific radio interface so that, upon receipt of the response, theresponses may be retransmitted over the radio interfaces originallyused.

In some embodiments, two or more mesh nodes may establish an 800 MHzradio frequency connection and may use the 800 MHz frequency connectionas one of a plurality of radio access technologies or radio interfaces,in accordance with the above disclosure. 800 MHz is advantageous,particularly when used in conjunction with other radio interfaces,because it has the characteristic of being able to pass more effectivelythrough buildings and walls.

In some embodiments, the above disclosure may be implemented inconjunction with multipath TCP. Multipath TCP enables a single datastream to be delivered via multiple paths, and is described more fullyin IETF RFC 6824, which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety.When combined with multipath TCP, in some embodiments, individual TCPsubflows may be sent over different radio access technologies. Inaddition, new sub-flows may be initiated by an upstream node, a backhaulmesh node, a mesh node in the data path, or another node, in someembodiments. In addition, the sub-flows may be re-joined by the meshegress node prior to transmission to the user device, in someembodiments.

Additionally, a device in the data path may serve as a multipath TCPproxy, in some embodiments. One or more mesh nodes, or a central cloudcontroller node, may advertise that it permits the use of multipath TCP,in some embodiments, and may act as a multipath TCP proxy node. Whenmultipath TCP is utilized or requested by an upstream node, themultipath TCP proxy node may receive a plurality of multipath TCPstreams and route the streams to one or more channels, EPS bearers, orTCP connections over one or more radio access technologies. Themultipath TCP proxy node may operate in conjunction with a secondmultipath TCP proxy node, such that the first proxy separates individualTCP subflows and the second proxy re-joins the individual TCP subflows,thereby allowing multipath TCP to be provided or enabled by the networkeven when a client device or user equipment does not itself multipathTCP.

In some embodiments, a carrier aggregation mode may be initiated basedon characteristics of a particular session, flow, tunnel, user, userdevice, mesh data path, or other characteristics. In some embodiments,the downstream node may be specifically requested to enter such a mode,in some embodiments by a cloud coordination server. In otherembodiments, operation may be transparent to one or more nodes in thenetwork and may be initiated at a mesh node based on a determination ofradio interface capabilities at the next hop mesh node in the routingpath.

The use of a plurality of different radio interfaces, such as Wi-Fi plusLTE, enables two or more transmissions to combine to provide theeffective bandwidth of all interfaces added together. In addition, theheterogeneity among interfaces allows transmission and reception to beperformed independently and without mutual interference among theinterfaces. In some embodiments, routing is performed at one or moremesh nodes. In the mesh node performing routing, a routing table isenabled to include a cost parameter for each route. Individual radioaccess technologies may provide one, two, or more routes per RAT to eachnetwork or node in the routing table. A route may be identified as acarrier aggregation route using a tag or flag, in some embodiments. Acost parameter may be associated with each route. The cost parameter maybe adjusted based on one or more factors, including: latency; linkreliability; link availability; processing overhead foraggregation/disaggregation; and physical characteristics, likepenetration power, of a particular frequency band; number of meshnetwork hops or other network hops to the final destination; or otherfactors. For example, in a network wherein two mesh nodes are connectedvia a variety of radio interfaces, and assuming the same latency for allconnections, an 800 MHz radio interface may be assigned a higher costparameter based on its greater reliability such that it shouldconsequently be reserved for backup, an LTE interface may be assigned alower cost parameter reflecting its high availability and highthroughput, and a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radio interface may be assigned aneutral cost parameter given its balance of potential interference andhigh throughput.

In some embodiments, specific radio interfaces may be flagged in therouting table as permitting, or not permitting, carrier aggregation. Insome embodiments, the capacity of each interface may be reflected in therouting table, allowing multiple interfaces to be aggregated to providean overall additive increase in capacity, potentially providing aninteger multiple of throughput over that of a single channel. In someembodiments, the routing table may be modified to provide virtualinterfaces that are aggregations of more than one radio interface andthat reflect the increased throughput provided by the individual radiointerfaces. In some embodiments, an intra-layer routing module may bepresent within an aggregating virtual interface to provide routing ofspecific packets based on one or more of the cost parameters describedabove.

In some embodiments, quality of service parameters may be provided inrelation to an individual network interface or the aggregated networkinterface in the routing table, the traffic quality of serviceparameters reflecting a Long Term Evolution (LTE) quality-of-service(QoS) class identifier (QCI) or a Wi-Fi Wireless Multimedia Extensions(WME) access category (AC), or other QoS parameters.

In some embodiments, the radio channel performance characteristics ofthe underlying radio interfaces may be continuously monitored to providereal-time updates to the routing table, thereby permitting the networkto avoid channels that have transient interference, for example. Thesecharacteristics may include one or more of latency, jitter, receivedsignal strength indication (RSSI), reference signal received power(RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), bit error rate, packetreception rate, or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In some embodiments, theaggregation and disaggregation may be managed to provide desiredcharacteristics, the characteristics being one or more of the abovecharacteristics. For example, if an LTE connection provides a lowerlatency than a Wi-Fi connection, a disaggregating base station maydirect latency-sensitive requests and streams to the LTE connection.

In some embodiments, the description above may be applied to provideimproved backhaul to an eNodeB connected via links in a mesh network toa fixed backhaul connection. For example, assume the eNodeB has at leasta Wi-Fi link to one mesh node (the “egress node”), and an LTE link forproviding access to one or more mobile devices. The egress node may havemultiple Wi-Fi and LTE links to other mesh nodes, via which it may haveaccess to the backhaul connection at the backhaul node. In someembodiments, the egress node may receive a request for data over HTTPand split it into multiple range requests. The multiple range requestsmay be retransmitted over both the Wi-Fi and LTE links to a single meshnode, or to two mesh nodes. The multiple range requests may betransmitted via the mesh network to the backhaul node, which may thenreaggregate the requests and retransmit over the fixed backhaulconnection.

In some embodiments, the description above may be applied to provideimproved throughput to a UE supporting aggregation over Wi-Fi and LTE.For example, a UE may become aware that it is connected to both a Wi-Finetwork and an LTE network, and may issue multiple requests for data.The multiple requests for data may be a plurality of HTTP range requestsfor a single data object. In the case that both the Wi-Fi and the LTEnetworks are provided by a single multi-RAT base station, the multi-RATbase station may identify that the multiple requests are for the samedata object, and may reaggregate them into one request for the dataobject before retransmitting the one request. When the data objectarrives from the Internet, the multi-RAT base station may deaggregatethe response providing the data object into a plurality of responsescorresponding to the originally-requested range requests, and maydeliver the plurality of responses to the user over the originally-usedradio interfaces.

In some embodiments, aggregation of an LTE radio interface may includeaggregating a plurality of LTE channels, radio bearers, or carriers. Forexample, LTE carrier aggregation may be used to aggregate two adjacentLTE channels, and multi-RAT radio aggregation may be applied to thecarrier-aggregated LTE radio interface to combine its bandwidth with thebandwidth of another radio interface. LTE carrier aggregation may beperformed in accordance with 3GPP TR 36.808, TR 36.814, TR 36.815, TR36.823, TR 36.912, TR 36.913, TS 36.101, TS 36.211, TS 36.212, TS36.213, and/or TS 36.300, which are hereby incorporated by reference.The aggregated carriers may be inter-band carriers, in some embodiments.A plurality of serving cells may be used in conjunction with carrieraggregation, in some embodiments, with multi-RAT carrier aggregationbeing performed at a primary serving cell (PSC), in some embodiments. Insome embodiments, signaling information may be delivered on anaggregated LTE downlink channel for information about component carrierscheduling, and signaling information for HARQ ACK/NACK may be providedvia both the uplink and downlink component carriers for each componentcarrier. LTE carrier aggregation operations such as component carrierscheduling and HARQ ACK/NACK may be performed within an LTE stackcoupled to the routing layer above, in some embodiments, with the LTEstack being solely responsible for LTE component carrier coordinationactivities.

In some embodiments, a base station may include a processor, a pluralityof radio interfaces, and a storage medium. The processor may executeinstructions on the storage medium. The processor may retain, in itsworking memory, or on the storage medium, a routing table. The routingtable may include routing cost parameters reflecting whether carrieraggregation may be performed on a particular radio interface. The basestation may receive a request that is split over multiple radiointerfaces, either from a user equipment or another base station. Thebase station may split or un-split (disaggregate or aggregate) a query,request, response, or message. The base station may be capable ofproviding multipath TCP capability.

In some embodiments, a mesh network may include a plurality of meshnetwork nodes. The mesh network nodes may each include processors, aplurality of radio interfaces, and storage media. The processors mayexecute instructions located at each mesh network node and may retain arouting table at each mesh network node, the routing table as describedelsewhere herein. Each mesh network node may communicate with each otheror with a central controller to indicate whether carrier aggregation maybe initiated, terminated, or performed at the mesh network node. Themesh network nodes may receive a request that is split over multipleradio interfaces, either from a user equipment, a base station, oranother mesh node, or a controller node. The mesh network nodes maysplit or un-split (disaggregate or aggregate) a query, request,response, or message. The mesh network nodes may be capable of providingmultipath TCP capability. If the mesh network node has a fixed backhaulinterface, it may disaggregate any requests before retransmitting arequest for data over the fixed backhaul interface.

In some embodiments, a network controller may be placed in a data pathbetween a mobile device and a core network. The network controller mayreceive a request that is split over multiple radio interfaces, eitherfrom a user equipment, a base station, a mesh node, or another networkcontroller. The network controller may split or un-split (disaggregateor aggregate) a query, request, response, or message. The controllernode may be capable of providing multipath TCP capability. The networkcontroller may disaggregate any requests before retransmitting a requestfor data to the core network. The controller node may disaggregate oraggregate any requests or responses received from the core networkbefore sending the requests or responses along to the next stop in themesh network toward the intended destination.

In some embodiments, the network controller may receive coordinationmessages from one or more mesh nodes. The coordination messages maypermit a mesh node to register whether or not it is capable ofperforming carrier aggregation as described herein, includingspecifically which radio interfaces it has and which other mesh nodes itis coupled to. The network controller may direct one or more mesh nodesto aggregate or disaggregate messages, responses, requests, or othercommunications between mesh nodes. The network controller may havedirect or indirect read, write, and/or read/write access to routingtables stored at the mesh nodes, and may modify the routing tables tocause the mesh nodes to perform aggregation or disaggregation.

In some embodiments, more than two radio interfaces may be aggregated inaccordance with the above disclosure. For example, three radiointerfaces may be aggregated. As another example, a virtual networkinterface may be created to provide a single interface for three radiointerfaces, an arbitrary number of radio interfaces, a heterogeneouscombination of radio and non-radio interfaces, or a combination ofnetwork interfaces that may be re-combined and/or changed dynamically toinclude or exclude certain network interfaces.

In some embodiments, carrier aggregation may be used herein to meanmulti-carrier bonding, and the technique used herein may be used tocombine two interfaces or more than two interfaces into a single stream.In some embodiments, either Wi-Fi or LTE may be used as the primaryconnection and the other connection or connections as a secondary orslave connection.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a pair of base stations, in accordancewith some embodiments. FIG. 1 shows base station (BS) 1 101, coupled toBS 2 102. BS 1 and BS 2 may be eNodeBs, or may be enhanced eNodeBs asdescribed elsewhere herein. BS 1 provides wireless access to UE 103. BS1 uses BS 2 as backhaul, to transport traffic from UE 103 to the corenetwork, shown as 104 and coupled to BS 2 102. BS 1 includes a virtualinterface 105, which includes a Wi-Fi interface 105 a and a Long TermEvolution (LTE) interface 105 b. BS 2 includes a similar virtualinterface 106 with Wi-Fi interface 106 a and LTE interface 106 b.Virtual interfaces 105 and 106 provide a single logical interface foruse by higher levels of the networking stack on BS 1 and BS 2,respectively. Wi-Fi interfaces 105 a and 106 a can be connectedwirelessly via Wi-Fi to provide connection 107, and LTE interfaces 105 band 106 b can be connected wirelessly via LTE to provide connection 108.

The virtual interfaces aggregate and disaggregate transport controlprotocol (TCP) packets sent over the virtual interfaces, in someembodiments. For example, BS 1 may direct virtual interface 105 totransmit a sequences of packets. Some packets may be sent to BS 2 viaWi-Fi interface 105 a, and some packets may be sent to BS 2 via LTEinterface 105 b. The disaggregation of the packets happens transparentlyto the higher levels of BS 1 and therefore to the UE 103 as well.Re-aggregation of the packets happens at virtual interface 106. Packetsare received both by Wi-Fi interface 106 a and by LTE interface 106 b.The packets are rearranged, if necessary, and re-aggregated and sent toBS 2 at a higher layer. In the diagram, EPC/core network 104 isconnected via another interface, which may be a wired or wirelessinterface; reaggregation happens prior to sending packets to EPC/corenetwork 104.

In some embodiments, aggregation and disaggregation may be performed bya general purpose processor (GPP), or by a special-purpose processor,such as a network processor. In some embodiments, aggregation anddisaggregation may occur via various algorithms. For example, a singleTCP protocol request may be split into multiple requests, e.g., a singleHypertext Transport Protocol request may be split into two or morerequests, or a single File Transfer Protocol request may be split intotwo or more requests, etc. Connection 107 and connection 108 may beequally balanced, or may be differently balanced, in some embodiments.For example, a Wi-Fi connection may provide 70 Mbps of bandwidth, and anLTE connection may provide 100 Mbps of bandwidth, and the virtualinterface may disaggregate requests so as to balance usage of each link.In some embodiments, the total usable bandwidth could then reach orapproach 170 Mbps. Various types of aggregation and disaggregation maybe contemplated, including Layer 7 application layer request parsing,TCP packet sequence ID parsing, separation by UE identifier/IMSI/GUTI,or another method. In some embodiments, Wi-Fi access may be limited toUEs that authenticate via the LTE connection on the UE.

In some embodiments, virtual interfaces 105 and 106 may provide alogical interface to the operating system, which can be addressed byprograms and services running on BS 1 and BS 2. The virtual interfacemay be a primary or default route for the BS. The virtual interface maybe provided in addition to providing direct access to the underlyingWi-Fi and LTE interfaces. The BS may manage usage of each network linkto ensure that link usage is not saturated. LTE and Wi-Fi security maybe applied prior to transport at virtual interface 105, and may beremoved at virtual interface 106 so as to permit recombining.

FIG. 2 is a network diagram of a dual-RAT UE connected to a meshnetwork, in accordance with some embodiments. UE 201 communicates viaboth Wi-Fi connection 202 a and LTE connection 202 b to BS 1 203. BS 1203 is connected via a separate pair of connections 204 a and 204 b toBS 2 205 as a backhaul node. BS 2 205 is connected via a separate pairof connections 206 a and 206 b to BS 3 207. BS 3 207 is a base stationthat provides backhaul for BS 1 203 and BS 2 205 via backhaul connection208, which is connected to a gateway to a core network 209. BS 3 mayprovide reaggregating capability for multiple-stream flows or packetsreceived via connections 206 a and 206 b, for providing a singleaggregated stream to the core network, and disaggregating capability toseparate packets received from gateway 209 to properly utilizeconnection 206 a and 206 b.

BS 1 and BS 2 and BS 3 may be eNodeBs, or may be enhanced eNodeBs asdescribed herein in FIGS. 1 and 5, and elsewhere herein, and may bearranged in a multipoint-to-multipoint mesh network. Gateway 209 may bean SGW, a PGW, or another node that is part of the core network, or mayalso be a proxy through which all traffic will pass on its way to thecore network, as further described in FIGS. 6 and 7 herein. Wi-Ficonnection 202 a may use a Wi-Fi protocol supported by UE 201, including802.11 a/b/g/n/ac or another Wi-Fi interface. Wi-Fi connection 202 b mayuse an LTE Uu protocol connection. For example, this may be a 1.8 GHzconnection, or another connection reserved for use by UEs in theparticular region. Wi-Fi connections 204 a and 206 a may be meshwireless connections, including 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac or another Wi-Ficonnection, or a point-to-point connection provided over a Wi-Ficonnection, or a wired digital subscriber loop (DSL) connection, or amicrowave or non-line of sight (NLOS) connection, or another type ofconnection, such an LTE or 5G wireless connection. LTE connections 204 band 206 b may use the LTE Un protocol and may operate on a frequency,such as the 900 MHz frequency shown here, reserved for use by operatorsand not for UEs, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, UE 201 may provide its own disaggregatingcapability for managing wireless connections 202 a and 202 b. Forexample, the Samsung Galaxy [TM] S5 handset performs disaggregation ofHTTP requests by using the HTTP range request feature of HTTP. Thisresults in a single request being broken into multiple requests, whereeach file that is being received is covered by non-overlapping oroverlapping ranges of bytes that are specifically requested in separateHTTP requests. These separate HTTP requests may be sent to BS 203 viadifferent wireless connections, e.g., 202 a and 202 b. These separateHTTP requests may be sent without reaggregation all the way to the corenetwork via gateway 209, in some embodiments. UE 201 may or may notrepresent connections 202 a and 202 b as a single virtual or logicalinterface. In some embodiments, however, as shown in FIG. 2, BS 3 207may perform deep or shallow packet inspection and may detect thatmultiple HTTP requests are being made for the same file or object andmay recombine into a single HTTP request, which may result in fasterperformance upstream from BS 3 207. In some embodiments, gateway 209 mayperform this function instead of BS 3 207. This approach may be used forany UE that is capable of connecting with more than one RAT, with the UEhaving the ability to control or influence which requests are sent overwhich wireless connection. Various different approaches are possible,with different levels of control over utilization of the separate Wi-Fiand LTE interfaces being provided by using aggregation anddisaggregation at different nodes. In some embodiments, connections 204a, 204 b, and connections 206 a, 206 b can be aggregated into a singlelogical connection, as will be shown in the examples to follow.

FIG. 3 is a network diagram of a UE connected to a mesh network, inaccordance with some embodiments. UE 301 communicates via LTE connection302 only to BS 1 303. BS 1 303 is connected via an aggregated pair ofconnections 304 a and 304 b, represented as a tunnel in the diagram, toBS 3 305 as a backhaul node. BS 3 305 is connected via an aggregatedpair of connections 306 a and 306 b, represented as a tunnel in thediagram, to BS 3 307. BS 3 307 is a base station that provides backhaulfor BS 1 303 and BS 3 305 via backhaul connection 308, which isconnected to a gateway to a core network 309. BS 3 may providereaggregating capability for multiple-stream flows or packets receivedvia connections 306 a and 306 b, for providing a single aggregatedstream to the core network, and disaggregating capability to separatepackets received from gateway 309 to properly utilize connection 306 aand 306 b.

BS 1 and BS 3 and BS 3 may be eNodeBs, or may be enhanced eNodeBs asdescribed herein in FIGS. 1 and 5, and elsewhere herein, and may bearranged in a multipoint-to-multipoint mesh network. Gateway 309 may bean SGW, a PGW, or another node that is part of the core network, or mayalso be a proxy through which all traffic will pass on its way to thecore network, as further described in FIGS. 6 and 7 herein. UE 301connects via Wi-Fi connection 302 a may use a Wi-Fi protocol supportedby UE 301, including 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac or another Wi-Fi interface. Wi-Ficonnection 302 b may use an LTE Uu protocol connection. For example,this may be a 1.8 GHz connection, or another connection reserved for useby UEs in the particular region. Wi-Fi connections 304 a and 306 a maybe mesh wireless connections, including 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac or anotherWi-Fi connection, or even a microwave or non-line of sight (NLOS)connection, or another type of connection, such an LTE or 5G wirelessconnection. LTE connections 304 b and 306 b may use the LTE Un protocoland may operate on a frequency, such as the 900 MHz frequency shownhere, reserved for use by operators and not for UEs, in someembodiments.

Wi-Fi connections 304 a and 306 a may be mesh wireless connections,including 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac or another Wi-Fi connection, or apoint-to-point connection provided over a Wi-Fi connection, or a wireddigital subscriber loop (DSL) connection, or a microwave or non-line ofsight (NLOS) connection, or another type of connection, such an LTE or5G wireless connection. LTE connections 304 b and 306 b may use the LTEUn protocol and may operate on a frequency, such as the 900 MHzfrequency shown here, reserved for use by operators and not for UEs, insome embodiments. However, unlike in FIG. 2, the underlying details ofthe Wi-Fi and LTE connections are abstracted by a virtual or logicalinterface at BS 1 and BS 2, such that higher protocol layers of BS 1 andBS 2 are aware of and are effectively using a single backhaulconnection.

Management of utilization of the underlying interfaces may be performedat least at BS 1, which performs disaggregation of the data receivedfrom UE 301 via LTE connection 302, and at BS 3, which performsdisaggregation of the data received from the core network. BS 1 performsaggregation of the data received via the logical interface and sends there-aggregated data back over LTE connection 302. BS 3 performsaggregation of the data received via connections 306 a and 306 b andsends the re-aggregated data back over backhaul connection 308, whichmay be a wired or wireless backhaul connection of any type. In someembodiments, the aggregation function performed at BS 3 may be performedinstead at gateway 309 before the data is forwarded to the core network.

FIG. 4 is a second network diagram of a UE connected to a mesh network,in accordance with some embodiments. UE 401 communicates via connection402 to BS 1 403. Connection 402 may be an LTE Uu protocol connectiononly, or may be a combined LTE Uu and Wi-Fi connection, in someembodiments. BS 1 403 has a Wi-Fi interface and an LTE interface, andconnects via Wi-Fi connection 404 to BS 2 406 and via LTE connection 405to BS 3 407. BS 1 403 has an internal UE modem and connects to basestation BS 3 407 via an LTE Uu connection, not via an LTE Un connection;wherever an LTE connection is described herein, it may be either a Uuconnection using an internal UE modem or a Un connection, which mayutilize the LTE Relay specification, in various embodiments. BS 2 406has an LTE connection and uses LTE connection 408, which is a 900 Mhz Unconnection, for backhaul to gateway to core network 410. BS 3 407 has anLTE connection and uses LTE connection 409, which is a 900 MHz Unconnection, for backhaul to gateway to core network 410. Gateway 410provides a gateway to the core network, and may perform aggregation anddisaggregation as described elsewhere herein.

In FIG. 4, the UE 401 may be an LTE-only or multi-RAT UE. Communicationsto and from the UE may exceed the backhaul capacity of a single link,such as either of links 404 and 405, particularly if UE 401 is usingboth its RAT links to saturate BS 1. In this case, BS 1 may use multiplenodes in a mesh network to access additional backhaul capacity. Thisrelies on BS 1 and, in some cases, BS 2 and BS 3, to be enabled toperform mesh routing. BS 1 may use the disaggregation techniquedescribed herein to separate the requests from UE 401 into a stream forWi-Fi connection 404, and a stream for LTE connection 405. This enablesthe use of both connections 404 and 405 for egress from BS 1, and byoperation of the mesh network shown, the use of both connections 408 and409 to obtain greater backhaul capacity than either of singleconnections 408 and 409. Re-aggregation is performed at gateway 410.This technique may be used when multiple egress paths exist out of amesh network, and increases the backhaul capacity of the mesh networkfor supporting traffic from a single UE.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an enhanced eNodeB, in accordance withsome embodiments. Enhanced eNodeB 500 may include processor 502,processor memory 504 in communication with the processor, basebandprocessor 506, and baseband processor memory 508 in communication withthe baseband processor. Enhanced eNodeB 500 may also include first radiotransceiver 510 and second radio transceiver 512, internal universalserial bus (USB) port 516, and subscriber information module card (SIMcard) 518 coupled to USB port 514. In some embodiments, the second radiotransceiver 512 itself may be coupled to USB port 516, andcommunications from the baseband processor may be passed through USBport 516.

A signaling storm reduction module 530 may also be included, and may bein communication with a local evolved packet core (EPC) module 520, forauthenticating users, storing and caching priority profile information,and performing other EPC-dependent functions when no backhaul link isavailable. Local EPC 520 may include local HSS 522, local MME 524, localSGW 526, and local PGW 528, as well as other modules. Local EPC 520 mayincorporate these modules as software modules, processes, or containers.Local EPC 520 may alternatively incorporate these modules as a smallnumber of monolithic software processes. SSR module 530 and local EPC520 may each run on processor 502 or on another processor, or may belocated within another device.

Processor 502 and baseband processor 506 are in communication with oneanother. Processor 502 may perform routing functions, and may determineif/when a switch in network configuration is needed. Baseband processor506 may generate and receive radio signals for both radio transceivers510 and 512, based on instructions from processor 502. In someembodiments, processors 502 and 506 may be on the same physical logicboard. In other embodiments, they may be on separate logic boards.

The first radio transceiver 510 may be a radio transceiver capable ofproviding LTE eNodeB functionality, and may be capable of higher powerand multi-channel OFDMA. The second radio transceiver 512 may be a radiotransceiver capable of providing LTE UE functionality. Both transceivers510 and 512 are capable of receiving and transmitting on one or more LTEbands. In some embodiments, either or both of transceivers 510 and 512may be capable of providing both LTE eNodeB and LTE UE functionality.Transceiver 510 may be coupled to processor 502 via a PeripheralComponent Interconnect-Express (PCI-E) bus, and/or via a daughtercard.As transceiver 512 is for providing LTE UE functionality, in effectemulating a user equipment, it may be connected via the same ordifferent PCI-E bus, or by a USB bus, and may also be coupled to SIMcard 518.

SIM card 518 may provide information required for authenticating thesimulated UE to the evolved packet core (EPC). When no access to anoperator EPC is available, local EPC 520 may be used, or another localEPC on the network may be used. This information may be stored withinthe SIM card, and may include one or more of an international mobileequipment identity (IMEI), international mobile subscriber identity(IMSI), or other parameter needed to identify a UE. Special parametersmay also be stored in the SIM card or provided by the processor duringprocessing to identify to a target eNodeB that device 500 is not anordinary UE but instead is a special UE for providing backhaul to device500.

Wired backhaul or wireless backhaul may be used. Wired backhaul may bean Ethernet-based backhaul (including Gigabit Ethernet), or afiber-optic backhaul connection, or a cable-based backhaul connection,in some embodiments. Additionally, wireless backhaul may be provided inaddition to wireless transceivers 510 and 512, which may be Wi-Fi802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad/ah, Bluetooth, ZigBee, microwave (includingline-of-sight microwave), or another wireless backhaul connection. Anyof the wired and wireless connections described herein may be usedflexibly for either access or backhaul, according to identified networkconditions and needs, and may be under the control of processor 502 forreconfiguration.

Other elements and/or modules may also be included, such as a homeeNodeB, a local gateway (LGW), a self-organizing network (SON) module,or another module. Additional radio amplifiers, radio transceiversand/or wired network connections may also be included.

Processor 502 may identify the appropriate network configuration, andmay perform routing of packets from one network interface to anotheraccordingly. Processor 502 may use memory 504, in particular to store arouting table to be used for routing packets. Baseband processor 506 mayperform operations to generate the radio frequency signals fortransmission or retransmission by both transceivers 510 and 512.Baseband processor 506 may also perform operations to decode signalsreceived by transceivers 510 and 512. Baseband processor 506 may usememory 508 to perform these tasks.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a signaling coordinator server, inaccordance with some embodiments. Signaling coordinator 600 includesprocessor 602 and memory 604, which are configured to provide thefunctions described herein. Also present are radio access networkcoordination/signaling (RAN Coordination and signaling) module 606, RANproxying module 608, and routing virtualization module 610. In someembodiments, coordinator server 600 may coordinate multiple RANs usingcoordination module 606. In some embodiments, coordination server mayalso provide proxying, routing virtualization and RAN virtualization,via modules 610 and 608. In some embodiments, a downstream networkinterface 612 is provided for interfacing with the RANs, which may be aradio interface (e.g., LTE), and an upstream network interface 614 isprovided for interfacing with the core network, which may be either aradio interface (e.g., LTE) or a wired interface (e.g., Ethernet).Signaling storm reduction functions may be performed in module 606.

Signaling coordinator 600 includes local evolved packet core (EPC)module 620, for authenticating users, storing and caching priorityprofile information, and performing other EPC-dependent functions whenno backhaul link is available. Local EPC 620 may include local HSS 622,local MME 624, local SGW 626, and local PGW 628, as well as othermodules. Local EPC 620 may incorporate these modules as softwaremodules, processes, or containers. Local EPC 620 may alternativelyincorporate these modules as a small number of monolithic softwareprocesses. Modules 606, 608, 610 and local EPC 620 may each run onprocessor 602 or on another processor, or may be located within anotherdevice.

FIG. 7 is a system architecture diagram of an exemplary networkconfiguration, in accordance with some embodiments. Base stations 702and 704 are connected via an S1-AP and an X2 interface to coordinationserver 706. Base stations 702 and 704 are eNodeBs, in some embodiments.Coordination server 706 is connected to the evolved packet core(EPC)/Core Network 708 via an S1 protocol connection and an S1-MMEprotocol connection. Coordination of base stations 702 and 704 may beperformed at the coordination server. In some embodiments, thecoordination server may be located within the EPC/Core Network 708.EPC/Core Network 708 provides various LTE core network functions, suchas authentication, data routing, charging, and other functions. In someembodiments, mobility management is performed both by coordinationserver 706 and within the EPC/Core Network 708. EPC/Core Network 708provides, typically through a PGW functionality, a connection to thepublic Internet 710.

In some embodiments, the radio transceivers described herein may be basestations compatible with a Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio transmissionprotocol or air interface, which may include LTE-A or any future3GPP-based air interface and wireless protocol. The LTE-compatible basestations may be eNodeBs. In addition to supporting the LTE protocol, thebase stations may also support other air interfaces, such as UMTS/HSPA,CDMA/CDMA2000, GSM/EDGE, GPRS, EVDO, other 3G/2G, legacy TDD, or otherair interfaces used for mobile telephony. In some embodiments, the basestations described herein may support Wi-Fi air interfaces, which,whenever mentioned herein, may refer to IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/af/ah oranother Wi-Fi protocol. In some embodiments, the base stations describedherein may support IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), to LTE transmissions inunlicensed frequency bands (e.g., LTE-U, Licensed Access or LA-LTE), toLTE transmissions using dynamic spectrum access (DSA), to radiotransceivers for ZigBee, Bluetooth, or other radio frequency protocols,or other air interfaces. In some embodiments, the base stationsdescribed herein may use programmable frequency filters. In someembodiments, the base stations described herein may provide access toland mobile radio (LMR)-associated radio frequency bands. In someembodiments, the base stations described herein may also support morethan one of the above radio frequency protocols, and may also supporttransmit power adjustments for some or all of the radio frequencyprotocols supported. The embodiments disclosed herein can be used with avariety of protocols so long as there are contiguous frequencybands/channels. Although the method described assumes a single-in,single-output (SISO) system, the techniques described can also beextended to multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) systems. Wherever IMSI orIMEI are mentioned, other hardware, software, user or group identifiers,can be used in conjunction with the techniques described herein.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that multiple hardware andsoftware configurations could be used depending upon the accessprotocol, backhaul protocol, duplexing scheme, or operating frequencyband by adding or replacing daughtercards to the dynamic multi-RAT node.Presently, there are radio cards that can be used for the varying radioparameters. Accordingly, the multi-RAT nodes of the present inventioncould be designed to contain as many radio cards as desired given theradio parameters of heterogeneous mesh networks within which themulti-RAT node is likely to operate. Those of skill in the art willrecognize that, to the extent an off-the shelf radio card is notavailable to accomplish transmission/reception in a particular radioparameter, a radio card capable of performing, e.g., in white spacefrequencies, would not be difficult to design.

Those of skill in the art will also recognize that hardware may embodysoftware, software may be stored in hardware as firmware, and variousmodules and/or functions may be performed or provided either as hardwareor software depending on the specific needs of a particular embodiment.

Although the scenarios for interference mitigation are described inrelation to macro cells and micro cells, or for a pair of small cells orpair of macro cells, the same techniques could be used for reducinginterference between any two cells, in which a set of cells is requiredto perform the CoMP methods described herein. The applicability of theabove techniques to one-sided deployments makes them particularlysuitable for heterogeneous networks, including heterogeneous meshnetworks, in which all network nodes are not identically provisioned.

In any of the scenarios described herein, where processing may beperformed at the cell, the processing may also be performed incoordination with a cloud coordination server. The eNodeB may be incommunication with the cloud coordination server via an X2 protocolconnection, or another connection. The eNodeB may perform inter-cellcoordination via the cloud communication server, when other cells are incommunication with the cloud coordination server. The eNodeB maycommunicate with the cloud coordination server to determine whether theUE has the ability to support a handover to Wi-Fi, e.g., in aheterogeneous network.

Although the methods above are described as separate embodiments, one ofskill in the art would understand that it would be possible anddesirable to combine several of the above methods into a singleembodiment, or to combine disparate methods into a single embodiment.For example, all of the above methods could be combined. In thescenarios where multiple embodiments are described, the methods could becombined in sequential order, or in various orders as necessary.

Although the above systems and methods for providing interferencemitigation are described in reference to the Long Term Evolution (LTE)standard, one of skill in the art would understand that these systemsand methods could be adapted for use with other wireless standards orversions thereof. For example, certain methods involving the use of avirtual cell ID are understood to require UEs supporting 3GPP Release11, whereas other methods and aspects do not require 3GPP Release 11.

In some embodiments, the software needed for implementing the methodsand procedures described herein may be implemented in a high levelprocedural or an object-oriented language such as C, C++, C #, Python,Java, or Perl. The software may also be implemented in assembly languageif desired. Packet processing implemented in a network device caninclude any processing determined by the context. For example, packetprocessing may involve high-level data link control (HDLC) framing,header compression, and/or encryption. In some embodiments, softwarethat, when executed, causes a device to perform the methods describedherein may be stored on a computer-readable medium such as read-onlymemory (ROM), programmable-read-only memory (PROM), electricallyerasable programmable-read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, or amagnetic disk that is readable by a general or specialpurpose-processing unit to perform the processes described in thisdocument. The processors can include any microprocessor (single ormultiple core), system on chip (SoC), microcontroller, digital signalprocessor (DSP), graphics processing unit (GPU), or any other integratedcircuit capable of processing instructions such as an x86microprocessor.

Although the present disclosure has been described and illustrated inthe foregoing example embodiments, it is understood that the presentdisclosure has been made only by way of example, and that numerouschanges in the details of implementation of the disclosure may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure, which islimited only by the claims which follow. Various components in thedevices described herein may be added, removed, or substituted withthose having the same or similar functionality. Various steps asdescribed in the figures and specification may be added or removed fromthe processes described herein, and the steps described may be performedin an alternative order, consistent with the spirit of the invention.Features of one embodiment may be used in another embodiment. Otherembodiments are within the following claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for increasing backhaul networkcapacity in a mobile access network, comprising: receiving an accessrequest from a mobile device; receiving a request for data from themobile device; classifying the request for data according to a demandedthroughput; repeatedly monitoring a plurality of network interfaces toassess the channel characteristics of the plurality of networkinterfaces and managing aggregation and disaggregation; identifying aplurality of network interfaces for serving the request for data basedon the classification and based on channel characteristics of theplurality of network interfaces; and sending a request for the requesteddata over a virtual network interface that uses each of the plurality ofidentified network interfaces.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theplurality of network interfaces are radio interfaces, and wherein thevirtual network interface is a virtual radio network interface.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: classifying a second request fordata based on updated channel characteristics.
 4. The method of claim 1,further comprising identifying two of a plurality of radio interfacesfor serving the request for data based on the classification and basedon channel characteristics of the plurality of radio interfaces; andsending a request for the requested data over both of the identified twoof the plurality of radio interfaces.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe access request is a packet data protocol (PDP) context request in aLong Term Evolution (LTE) access network, and wherein the mobile deviceis a user equipment (UE).
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein a demandedquality of service for the data from the mobile device is one of a LongTerm Evolution (LTE) quality-of-service (QoS) class identifier (QCI) anda Wi-Fi Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WME) access category (AC). 7.The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of network interfacesincludes at least two of: Wi-Fi; Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE); digital subscriber line (DSL);point-to-point protocol (PPP); land-mobile radio (LMR); television whitespace (TVWS); and Ethernet.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein thechannel characteristics include at least one of: latency; jitter;received signal strength indication (RSSI); reference signal receivedpower (RSRP); reference signal received quality (RSRQ); bit error rate;packet reception rate; and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
 9. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions forincreasing backhaul network capacity in a mobile access network which,when executed on a processor in a node in a cellular network, performfunctions comprising: receiving an access request from a mobile device;receiving a request for data from the mobile device; classifying therequest for data according to a demanded throughput; repeatedlymonitoring a plurality of network interfaces to assess the channelcharacteristics of the plurality of network interfaces and managingaggregation and disaggregation; identifying a plurality of networkinterfaces for serving the request for data based on the classificationand based on channel characteristics of the plurality of networkinterfaces; and sending a request for the requested data over a virtualnetwork interface that uses each of the plurality of identified networkinterfaces.